Installing a LS120 disk drive in my Windows 10 computer

I've been thinking of adding a floppy drive to my main Windows 10 computer for some time now, just to make life easier for copying files across to the vintage computers. But instead of simply adding a USB PC floppy drive I thought we would try and add an LS120 drive. One issue with those USB drives is they can't read 720k DD disks, lets see if the LS120 under Windows 10 can read them and if it can also read its proprietary 120mb format.

[pw]

I don't know why watching someone getting a floppy drive working on a pc is so compelling but here we are :) Great video

[dennisp.]

These are incredibly useful for "tweener" machines. I have one, in addition to a 360K and a 1.2 floppy in my Optiplex GX110.

Your transfer speed bottleneck is likely due to the IDE to USB transition. You should consider trying IDE to SATA or possibly look for a PCI-e to IDE card.

[xPLAYnOfficial]

I added an internal floppy drive to my main Windows 10 PC a while back using a somewhat-expensive floppy - USB adapter and a USB header - port converter cable. Works quite well and is quite nice. For most people I would highly recommend getting a socket 775 machine with a Core 2 in it, as they have built-in floppy headers and Windows 10 support. They are often dirt-cheap or even free, and sometimes even come with floppy drives installed (which is where I got my black one). Saves a machine from the dump, they are incredibly reliable (I have yet to see one die), most are quite small, and they take to both Windows 10 and floppy drives quite well :)

Hate Windows 10 all you want, but the one trick up it's sleeve is it's sheer amount of compatibility. Windows 10 by far is the most compatible OS that I have ever used (and I got my start on XP and still use it and 7 to this day). I was definitely shocked to see a floppy drive just boop in, full-supported, when I installed mine. My only gripe is the lack of Zip drive support, but from what I hear Zip drives were flaky to begin with, so nothing really new here.

Great video! I always love these inter-generational hardware projects. Basically everything I do is a crazy mish-mash of the old and the new, trying to connect them all together and make it all function as one. Definitely something that no one ever does or wants, and I certainly find myself asking really stupid questions that no one asks or ever needs, but regardless it's fun :)

[weepingscorpion]

OMG, I can't believe I've actually never thought of this. I'll definitely be looking that much harder for a LS120 or LS240 drive now. I wonder if the other drive formats that were out at the time will also work. Just like you, even if the LS disks don't work, I won't be as fussed.

[RavenWolfRetroTech]

That seems like a great solution. I have been starting to feel like we are going to need a chain of machines from different eras to be able to get from retro to modern but at least were not there yet!

[IOSam]

Great video Sir! As for your problem reading 120mb disks, the faut there is 100% on the IDE to USB adapter that is probably not translating the ATAPI signals properly to Windows 10. I have three external USB (1.1) Imation LS120 drives and they all work just fine on all machines I have here running three different versions of Windows (98 SE, XP and 10 Pro 21H2). But I agree that the main reason to use LS120 drives nowadays is just to read/write old floppy disks. So you're not losing much anyway...

Oh and by the way, LS120 drives do read/write different types of media at different speeds (they are way faster reading/writing LS120 media than 1.44 floppies for example).

[malksc]

I had one of these, and a CD burner. I'd use LS-120 discs to hold "offline data" until I had enough to fill a CD, so I only ended up using the same box of 10 over and over for years, until it was practical to let 700 MB accumulate on the hard drive.

[JoCrt]

Great video. I always find your content interesting because it's on practical & relatable topics. Thanks

[mesterak]

Dude, you’re logo screen at the end is awesome, nicely done!

[MultiRetroMan]

I bought an LS-120 drive with some discs many, many years ago and it's been in my old PC for many, many years and worked perfectly the last time I tried it (which was about 4 years ago) and I thought about seeing if I could get a USB adapter for it to see if I could get it to work with my Windows 11 laptop and after seeing this video, I think it seems pointless to even try it because it won't read the 120 discs.

I think a standard USB floppy disc drive would be easier.

Thank you for this video, it's great to see someone try it. :)

[marksmith]

One reason for the write delay is USB buffering, which makes a copy of the file in system memory before writing to floppy.

[ginger_wby]

Plesent surprise hearing a good Northern Irish accent on a YouTube PC video 👌 coming from a Cavan man! Hope all's well with you 👍

[sdavifcom]

Oddly, about a weeks ago or so, I looked through the whole internet (and that's a huge place) for a specific adaptor cable. I did not find it. And then, in the middle of your video, there it is !!! It's that adaptor that goes from USB "A" female to USB 4 pin motherboard header. The reason for getting that adaptor has gone away, but, thanks to you, I see that it does exist. Even though you were holding the small plastic bag it came in backward, I did spot the manufacturer. It's kinda expensive but, in a particular situation, it could save your life. Thanks again !

[JonTheGeek]

I've been coming up with this idea that I want a full ATX mother board, in a replica or original IBM 5150 case in black. With a modern slot loading drive, and a 3.5" drive bay. Having a 720k drive just work in windows is so frickin cool.

[quinnmiddleton]

Thank you for this video! I was trying to see if I could hook up a similar floppy disc drive to my gaming PC so I could play some cool original floppy disc games like doom and stuff

[CyclingSteve]

The faster transfer speeds were only available with LS120 discs, I used them back in the late 90s for running backups.

[FoxSock]

omg i love that the rgb cpu cooler youve got looks like an eye

[mattov]

Great video! I think you should enable adverts so your videos pop up easier with searches and what-not. In fact your videos are better put together than other YouTuber content creators who have over 20k subscribers. But they enable adverts. I'm sure you know this better than I do, but your videos are really good and need more views!!! Cheers, Matt.

[SeishukuS]

FWIW, I use a TEAC FD-05UW, it's a native USB floppy drive designed for internal mounting... It's a half-height 3.5" drive unfortunately, but it has worked for all the 1.44MB and 720KB disks I've thrown at it.
Even worked raw writing, which has came in handy for a few Mac machines.

[Pikachu]

Didn't the ls120 also let you format a regular 1.4mb disk to about 30mb? I remember that being very handy but again you needed an ls120 drive to read the contents.